Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

Today I had an interesting chat with an Agent from Amazon. I was trying to clear a different issue, when I ask him whether there plans to integrate Bitcoin as a payment possibility. He told me that the subject has been discussed internally, but as long as the customers not ask for it they wont implement it.

So, I asked for it now, what about you?

Regards

Jupppo

I'd say, we start an Online-Petition, but since the last Online-Petition, I was part of, wasn't really success, I am not sure about that ...

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Avaazorg_Start_accepting_cryptocurrencies_like_Bitcoin_for_donations/?nFCTmbb

So, should I write them an E-Mail?

I did an email. I guess the rather check their internal systems for that, than going to a petition system. But both won't hurt I guess.

J.

Posting on their Facebook page also creates attention!

https://www.facebook.com/Amazon?fref=ts

Where were you talking to this agent? I'm sure it has been discussed internally, but there have been many campaigns and users here emailing Amazon requesting they accept Bitcoin and they usually just get a canned response back if any. I'm sure they'll see the benefits of Bitcoin eventually providing the coin keeps growing.

I asked the same question to them a few months ago. They said they are not accepting at the moment.

I asked them on the phone. I didn't know about the other campains, but some users referred me now to them.

It would be huge, especially since Amazon is fighting with Apple, Google and eBay to be number one. They'd follow along pretty fast - (well, maybe not Apple).

already did this twice. but in the end, they will accept it because alot of other merchants accept it and not because we write mails.
i guess somewhere in 2016 we could see that  ;)

I doubt my individual opinion would matter much to Amazon - even with their good customer support. I personally believe that if adoption of BTC as a payment method for a goods/services by any of the tech giants becomes a likelihood (rather than just a hope) Amazon will rush to implement it aiming not to be left behind. The problem now is that BTC is really a niche market - there ain't enough people using it to warrant a shift from traditional fiat.

Maybe not an individual request, but if enough of us do it during a sustained period of time, they will take it seriously. Let's face it, they tailor their market to what their customer wants. "People who viewed this item also viewed..."

I first check with Overstock.com before and see if it has products I need to purchase there. Amazon may take a while to jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon and they are so big that bitcoin isn't of any consequence even if all of us contact them. I believe they will eventually integrate Bitcoin but in the meantime I want to support pioneers like Patrick Byrne who have taken a risk and now is even keeping 10% of all bitcoin sales in bitcoin which is amazing considering their margins.

I believe that rather than picking up the begging bowl and standing in front of big names such as Amazon and Ebay, we should focus more on the mid-sized and small-sized merchants. We don't need Amazon.

Well, Overstock seem to be one of their closest/biggest competitors and nothing changed with that. I'm sure they're weighing up/considering their options and monitoring Bitcoins progress closely, but it's not something they'll just jump in to. I agree that if we get one or two massive merchants accepting it it will have a knock-on effect and others will probably follow suit though (at least I'm hoping, but I think it'll be likely that will happen).

Well I asked support, and I just got this email back. It's positive if you ask me!
Seriously, I think it's worth nagging them!

Amazon should accept bitcoin by now,

Everyone knows that paypal(e-bay) hates bitcoin,

So why haven't they turned on their competitor and accept bitcoins?

Check out this Twitter...  "@amazon just sent me an email saying they will accept Bitcoin "

https://twitter.com/rogerkver/status/464778590161485825

Nice. Seriously, Amazon values people's interests. That is their fuel. We need to ask them more, and they will move on bitcoin sooner.

Well AWS taking BTC can be fun :D

WOW,it's amazing news made by Amazon.

Pretty sure someone has just edited on that last part. Look at the message and compare it to the responses people normally get.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BnJ_PWvIIAAbe0T.jpg

I am just waiting the day when i can buy food from my local supermarket with cryptos using NFC etc.  8)

Well... in Paris it is already possible. One of the supermarket chains there is already accepting Bitcoin as a mode of payment.

When Amazon would start to accept Bitcoins, they would make an official announcement.
They wouldn't write an E-Mail to just one customer.

Indeed. I highly doubt they would simply say that through email. Plus, chances are that the image is either fake or that that isn't an Amazon email at all.

In the meantime, use Gyft to purchase at Amazon. If sales numbers are high enough, Amazon might take notice and decide to accept bitcoins directly, just to cut out the middlemen.

I believe that one day you will realize the idea. We waited.

Really ? That is good news, things are going forward. I tought it was only some niche of few small cornershops and couple of pubs and restaurants in handful of countries. Do you get a discount by using Bitcoins instead of Visa ?

I've asked now let's get Alibaba.com


http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/7/5690596/meet-alibaba-the-ecommerce-giant-with-more-sales-than-amazon-and-ebay (http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/7/5690596/meet-alibaba-the-ecommerce-giant-with-more-sales-than-amazon-and-ebay)

This isn't going well at all: I highly doubt that even if we advertise a lot, that we can get half a million signatures.
Also I think that Amazon might accept Bitcoin in 2015, or 2016, not sooner.

A little bit old news. Check this:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=563444.0

Who in their right mind would require 500,000 people to request that they accept a donation before they would accept it? You want to donate bitcoin to me? Twist my arm!!

Most important thing is that people get things cheaper with cryptos and they need to receive that info too. That makes a lot of people willing to use crypto instead of credit card. Would it be Amazon or supermarket or whatever.
Then massive amounts of people starts asking about cryptopayments and that gets wheels rolling...

 :D :D :D

Definitely post something on their amazon page.

https://www.facebook.com/Amazon?fref=ts

They've got dedicated teams closely monitoring everything people post there, because it is so "public".

I just posted something now:

"Dear Amazon.  Your Corp Execs have made the statement that they will not integrate Bitcoin because "customers don't want it".  To my knowledge, Amazon hasn't bothered asking their customers if they want it yet.  I requested it, and was dismissed by your customer service.  Pretty sure your CEO never saw my email.  At least 350,000 people (bitcointalk members, VC's, early adopters, entrepreneurs, and the general public) and nearly 100,000 merchants (currently accepting bitcoin around the world) would say "yes" given the opportunity to voice their opinion.  Your direct competitors are doing millions in business every month in Bitcoin payments alone.  This is the biggest innovation in Finance in the last 60 years. Please reconsider allowing Bitcoin as a payment option on your site.  Or at least ask your customers if they'd appreciate the option, before you speak on behalf of them."

Good effort all!

Rallied last month when Amazon decided not to integrate bitcoin, to no avail.

Lot's of folks have mentioned Gyft as a method for buying, but thought I'd share this relatively new startup PURSE.IO:

https://purse.io/

And an interview with CEO by Rebecca Ahn (Money & Tech):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B5bM8X-sLM

Third-party may be the best option for Amazon/Bitcoiners for now. Hopefully will re-evaluate bitcoin integration in future.

A friend of mine did this a few months back, I have also followed suit and received a reply.
Unfortunately Amazon cant see the future aswell as many of us  ::)

Great news! so, if at least every tenth of us write them a letter, we will be able to use bitcoin on Amazon!

Overstock.com sucks!
1)They take bitcoins only from USA.
2)Their support are not helpful nor interested in customers needs

I did. Did you? (I mean the reader, not xsmoffx, because I'm sure you did too xsmoffx, right?)

How do you check, if Bitcoins are from the USA?

shipping addresses definitely are!

Those numbers are rubbish, and Amazon will know it.
100,000 merchants? Not using any definition of merchant that Amazon would consider 'direct competitors'.
And millions a month? How can you back that up?

You can't check that. Bitcoins can't be from USA, Europe, Asia whatever. The wallet that contains them only can. Maybe he meant customers from the USA.

I would LOVE to use bitcoin to buy things from Amazon, I am also an authorized Amazon merchant and would also love to sell my things for bitcoins.  It's pretty much like everyone uses paypal to buy and sell, what's the difference if we use bitcoin except for less fees. The problem is Amazon charges a % for everything for sellers, so if it were bitcoin, they would ask for a fee I am sure (probably just for the sellers).

It's not possible.

Maybe this is the stumbling block for Amazon AND eBay. How do they get their fees with bitcoin payments? Easy for us to figure out, but maybe not so easy for them to figure out. And they are not about to admit that it's a challenge, instead they just say "no".
Someone who knows someone should step forward and tell them: "Look, it's easy, just set it up this way." Maybe that's what they need to hear.

Amazon will probably come up with its own Crypto-Currency and thats why they dont accept Bitcoin.

Amazon won't be interested in accepting Bitcoin until it's clearly costing them customers. Check this out - a month ago the Amazon's head of payments said it's in demand. Do you think a month has changed that?

http://time.com/63376/amazon-bitcoin/

I think that's what the OP had in mind, encouraging readers to contact Amazon to inquire about Bitcoin payment.

True, but as others have mentioned there have been petitions and email campaigns before. I'm not saying we stop, just pointing out they're looking for a little more than a fringe percentile of their customers demanding Bitcoin.

I used to work at a major tech company and they wouldn't consider making even a tiny change unless there was an overwhelming demand for it.

Let's keep trying, but let's also be reasonable. Harassing smaller companies into accepting Bitcoin would probably be more effective at promoting overall Bitcoin commerce.

Well, I was talking about it with amazon agents for several times, every time the same answer, "our customers are not VERY interested in it" why so? I think the only reason is that very few people are writing to them,  :( so when are we going to be "interested enough"??? ??? ???

or maybe enough people are writing to them but they are not interested and never will be. that is a polite way to say no

Same reason why the other major retailers haven't done so yet, I think they're feeding you a line of crock. 

I worked in the customer service industry, you're paid to lie.  I felt like a politician so I quit that.

Here's the truth.

• PayPal is an online wallet (Like Blockchain)
• You deposit money directly and keep your home currency
• PayPal is owned by Ebay
• PayPal admitted it is threatened by BitCoin
• PayPal makes money at a rate of 2.5% on average for online transactions
• PayPal is free to send money to friend's account
• BitCoin's transaction fees are ridiculously low if you buy a $1,000 item
• BitCoin is a lot safer and faster and flexible, businesses rejoice, a new internet is born

In other words, BitCoin is a threat to them since adepts of PayPal are fast switching to BitCoin.  My company went from doing 95% of it's online purchases with the payment system that almost every merchant uses now to either bank transfers or BitCoin.  We now use PayPal once every three months instead of daily.

I spoke with eBay about this and they don't seem to be too receptive or brush it off.  They recently banned sales of ANY BitCoin, neither minted nor virtual and restricted it to the classified ads sections.  This means no feedback is exchanged.  Instead of working with companies they rather play the "We want the control said in other words" card.  I told them they'd see a significant drop in my using their system but they said it was fine and my choice to do so.  Been over three months since PayPal made money from me....  I hardly ever use eBay anymore.  Amazon hardly ever has the best deals anymore.

It's in their best interest but they won't give away ANY control THAT easily.

What does that have to do with Amazon? They don't care if eBay make money on PayPal or not.
I mean, nice rant, but in the wrong place.

Lot of stores start accepting Bitcoin. It would be great if Amazon start accepting Bitcoin. Waiting to hear the great news.

I think that a year from now we will all be able to pay with bitcoin in the major shopping sites

How about that?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/02/17/how-to-use-bitcoin-to-shop-at-amazon-home-depot-cvs-and-more/

seems like matter of tine.

If you ask then it would be one more person that asks.

One person would probably not make a difference, but a 100 would probably get some attention. 1000 people asking would get more attention, and so on.

I agree. We should let them know we want them to accept BTC. It's certainly safer than keeping your credit card data with them.

Stores are not suppose to store credit card information unless they receive your express consent.

I will write them an email, we can only try!

We can make an online petition for this, or we can make a group and take with their representatives.

We must try and I believe, we can succeed.

If you give them a call it would be much more effective.

It is very easy to send an email. It takes more time to place a call.

The same is true that it is very easy to ignore an email but is not as easy to ignore a phone call.

Just hit them up on facebook and will try placing a call and speaking to a live body as well.  I know they are already considering implementing this feature but couldn't hurt to light a little fire under their arses :p

I think it would be helpful if a lot of the merchants who sell things through Amazon.com requested that they add BTC as a payment option (in addition to us customers asking)...

+1.
That should be more effective.

Well if you can prove that Amazon did it
But neatness would be had if acquiring amazon becomes self fufilling
Get this on  :D

i second that, if we can focus on those small businesses and when those businesses grow and become real threats to amazon then they will have to find a way to integrate bitcoin.

I've just been using gyft.com to buy things from amazon with btc.

I get a couple bucks off each purchase because every time I buy a gift card from there I use the points from the previous purchase.

The gyfy.com site sounds amazing! I will definetly use it!
Who owns this site?

These big business have the ability to reach the masses. Small and medium sized businesses have much less of an ability to reach many people.

Well if these big businesses wont integrate bitcoin then our only hope is these small ones.

"You have to start at the bottom to get to the top"

Don't say that only the big business have the ability to reach the masses. If we combine ten medium and small sized businesses, then their reach will be equal to that of one giant-sized business.

You would need a lot more then 10 medium sized businesses then one "blue chip" business.

Over the long run we do need small businesses to adopt to bitcoin but in the short run it is best if large businesses start to accept bitcoin as that would increase public awareness and eventually get small businesses to accept it to compete

May be. But if the large companies notice that the smaller ones are gaining from the adoption of Bitcoin (lower fees, more revenue), then they will also consider about doing the same.

I know it ia probably a nogo for a forum to post rumors, but I have heard from a friend who works now for a big bitcoin payment provider, that a team of consultants has been dispatched to amazon. Signs are really looking good. If bitcoin hits amazon, that would be the final break through....

Personally I never bought at Amazon because they only accept credit cards.

Once they accept bitcoin I might consider amazon.

You haven't been much in this forum, have you? ;)


I pay via direct debit(not sure, if that is the right word) and I am fine with that.

In other words: any retailer that accepts Bitcoin will have more customers. I'm limiting myself to online transactions because of the need of a CC.
I usually message Amazon/Ebay/other after a purchase that I'd rather use Bitcoin.

Amazon knows about Bitcoin and probably considered it; let's hope they implement it soon it would be huge

Buying with bitcoins don't allow you to chargeback, I don't use it but it is thought as convenient by some

Why don't you give them a call?

How much time does it take you to send them an email? How long does it take you to delete emails?

https://www.facebook.com/Amazon/posts/10152280373993124

I never bought anything from Amazon, but in future i think i will order some stuff out of curiosity. I'd love to see them accepting BTC, since i don't want to use credit cards and stuff if it is not really neccessary.

Come on, Roger Ver said they'd accept it before the end 2014! What's the hold-up! I'm even betting on it!

https://www.betmoose.com/img/24.jpg (https://www.betmoose.com/bet/amazon-will-accept-bitcoin-by-end-of-2014)___________

Amazon will accept Bitcoin by end of 2014 (https://www.betmoose.com/bet/amazon-will-accept-bitcoin-by-end-of-2014) Options: Yes, without discounts (https://www.betmoose.com/bet/amazon-will-accept-bitcoin-by-end-of-2014#1) | Yes, with discounts (https://www.betmoose.com/bet/amazon-will-accept-bitcoin-by-end-of-2014#2) | No (https://www.betmoose.com/bet/amazon-will-accept-bitcoin-by-end-of-2014#3)

You stand to make a nice win, how much would you win if you won now?

Total Volume of the bet is 0.071 on BM

Yeah it's slowly growing. Generally, the more you put down, the more someone puts down against you. So if you put down 1 BTC I can almost guarantee someone will put down 1 BTC against you within the next week. The earlier you bet the higher the time multiplier so there's incentive to bet early.

We dont need to ask them, they know everything already and i think they're already working on it.

I concur.

It cannot hurt to send a mail to them once in a while so they can feel the excitement building; it will be huge if they accept Bitcoin


Betting on the World Cup is fun at the moment ;)

Amazon will never consider btc as they have their own payment services

Bet on it then I dare you.

You are talking about that I presume :

https://payments.amazon.com/developer

A kind of Paypal?

Even with Amazon's payment service they could still attract additional business from people wanting to buy items on their site with bitcoin.

They could also attract sellers wanting to get paid in bitcoin, although sellers would likely need to have a lengthy waiting period prior to receiving payment via bitcoin.

 I wouldn't be surprised if amazon owned companies start to accept Bitcoin before the shopping site considers it.

When Bitcoin gained mass media attention, this subreddit took a nosedive in intelligence..

They would likely be able to increase profits by accepting bitcoin by a greater amount then what their payment service will potentially generate.

He meant make a betmoose bet and put your money where your mouths are ^_^

Maybe they'd rather developmen their own digital coin.

Maybe This reply is not consistent with the post but oh yes This World Cup is making me really happy...

There is no doubt in my mind that this won't happen. Amazon loves to try and do everything, but it all sucks

I wouldn't be so surprised if they did.   Then again, eventually I also get a feeling that some countries may enable their own form of their local currencies into their own crypto.

I think this has already started happening, for example in Iceland they have auroracoin http://auroracoin.org/

But if amazon decided to make their own coin it wont so successful(marketing it would be too expensive for them) they would be better off using bitcoin.

You do realize that was a spectacular failure?

They would have no reason to make an Amazon coin, that would be of no use to them as they would need it to have a central authority and that is contra to what the crypto currencies are about. Amazon does have a currency of it's own....it is called Amazon Gift Cards

Amazon already has something called "Amazon Coins" in addition to gift cards. Basically they are like "credits" for Kindle Fire apps and games, etc. and by buying them, you can get those products at a discount. I haven't looked into it too much. Nothing to do with crypto, though.

Or, if you want to just pay the item cost and not have to round up to the nearest $10, use snapCard.

Snapcard has a 2% surcharge. Gyft actually pays me 3% back on every purchase. There's nothing better out there.

Depends what you're getting, and where. I'm happy to use Gyft when my purchase comes out pretty close to an integer number of giftcards and if I'm buying from a retailer they have on offer.

But if I'm just buying a cheapo item from Amazon, or if I'm wanting to buy from a site outside Gyft's umbrella, or if I just want to buy from a website without creating a new account on that site, I use snapCard.

It does say you can rest assured it will be taken care of.  I guess BTC at Amazon is in the works :)

Right, I think these Amazon Coins, with the name __ Coin, is what leads to people getting confused and thinking that Amazon is interested in making their own competitor to BTC.  However, as you rightly point out, this doesn't have anything to do with crypto, it's just like frequent flyer miles on an airline or something.

Gyft is great for specific stores, if you don't mind having to buy in the exact increments of those stores' smallest giftcard values. Frequently, I don't mind that. Sometimes I do. More often, I want to shop somewhere not currently available through Gyft.

I hope they expand their store availability. I would definitely use them more if I could buy gift cards at more grocery/super markets and restaurants, but where I am located, there is not so much available to me. Being able to buy Amazon gift cards is great, though.

if you are a repeat buyer of the store you are buying gift cards from then this should not be an issue

i will definitely ask for payment in BTC

No no no no - too big, too soon. When we have over 100 active and trusted exchanges, maybe. When Bitcoin's average transaction volume tops 1Billion USD daily, maybe. When the blocksize limit allows for more than 7 transactions a second, then we can consider petitioning. Until then, we're still just tiny fish - and we don't swim in the tank with the whales.

The BTC/USD market would need to have more liquidity to absorb the amounts Amazons would generate. Although, if it were to adopt it then lots of people would be buying BTC and more speculators lubricating the market I guess.

You're not thinking clearly. I'm very bearish about the future of bitcoin, but this would be a really good thing for bitcoin. Amazon isn't just a giant online marketplace, it also has huge cloud resources and enough IT horsepower to render needing dozens of other exchanges pretty moot.

What exactly would Amazon do with the Bitcoins? They can't pay their employees or maintain their servers with it. Amazon would be the only major store taking Bitcoins. They would become bloated and Bitcoin would be worthless. Rick is right, it is too big and too soon. Economies need to cycle money and Amazon wouldn't have anywhere to put the Bitcoins after they have been paid.

They would need to use something like bitpay, but since this is amazon we are talking about, it would probably make more sense for them to roll out such a service themselves. They might even make an exchange of sorts meant only for amazon <->bitcoin users to get around relying on MTgox's recent horror shows. This would be a very expensive investment in a currency that so far has been very unstable.

Amazon can provide a world of good to bitcoin, but chances are that right now, they won't do it since it is too risky for them to do so.

By providing the exchange, AND holding a good deal of the currency -- they could buy up 40% of the bitcoins in existence easily right now -- they could actually make the market and hold prices more stable just by selling their own reserves during runs and buying during crashes.

Yes, they already have Amazon coin, but why not take advantage of the proven protocol of bitcoin, and the widespread holdings of / interest in the currency?

I agree with the second part of your post, and the first part, while it does provide increased stability and may increase the adoption of bitcoin severely, I feel it goes against bitcoin having centralization. Though, I am on the fence about that. Stability would most certainly be extremely welcome right now.

They'd convert most of them to cash, which is what everybody else in the world is doing anyway and use them to avoid processing fees to Visa and Mastercard.

The current bitoin market by in large isn't "cycling money" either, it's all speculation. If people were using it mostly for goods and services it wouldn't be fluctuating in price like a penny stock.

Which would cause Bitcoin to become worthless. A site like Amazon wouldn't throttle Bitcoin expenditure. It is exactly why Amazon won't accept Bitcoin for a long, long time. Once many more small sites start accepting Bitcoin, then we can think about the big dogs.

Overstock accepts bitcoin and they keep 10% of bitcoin related profits on their books

Really, 10%?  That's a pretty big position for a retail company who's presumably not into currency speculation.  Obviously as a member of the bitcoin community, I hope they're making the right move.  Still it's a surprise.  Do you happen to have a link to an articule dicussing them keeping 10% of their bitcoins in bitcoins?

Here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/24kbc0/im_patrick_byrne_a_profreedom_supporter_of/

Amazon hasn't overlooked Bitcoin.  I asked a friend who works there as a brand specialist about this in April.
His response was not overwhelmingly positive, but he did say it's something they're still actively evaluating.

I believe it's the SXSW interview with Fred Ehrsam where he mentions companies that have extremely low margins...
and how there's huge incentive for those firms to accept Bitcoin - Amazon would certainly fall under that category.
At the same time, Amazon has a market cap of ~150b...  Bitcoin has a market cap of <10b.
( Overstock's market cap is a couple orders of magnitude lower than Amazon's, at 380m. )
(( Although I'm a huge fan of what Patrick Byrne has been doing for the community ))

If adoption continues at a strong pace, I think Amazon would be crazy not to accept Bitcoin in the future.
It's probably a little too early now though, as others have said.

Amazon could offer to accept Bitcoin for merchants who want to accept Bitcoin. The Amazon payment gateway could accept Bitcoin without Amazon the company having to hold Bitcoin.

But if they did hold some the easiest way to get rid of some would be to offer to pay their affiliates in Bitcoin. (If you refer someone to buy on Amazon, they will give you a cut).

Many affiliates don't even earn enough to justify payout in dollars and are just credited to their Amazon account.

Amazon credit, while it's nice, is obviously considered to be worth less than a Bitcoin for at least some of their "associates".

If Amazon or other big seller wants to use and promote digital coins, it will offer discounts when payed with certain coins.
Then the big seller can even hold the coins and make larger profit than the discount since the big demand will increase the coin's fiat value.
win-win

They would need to implement some kind of escrow service if they were to do this. If a amazon merchant were to receive bitcoin but did not ship or shipped products that were inferior to what was advertised then the amazon reputation would be damaged

They already have escrow system in place for fiat.

Doing escrow on bitcoin is a little harder as the price and go up and down in matter of minute, and retail profit is razor thin to withstand this kind of price movement.

I think in the long, long run Amazon may have some type of a payment system in the works. It may seemed far fetched now but eventually their market share is going to plateau and Ebay may be the final frontier. I could even see an acquisition...again in the far distant future.

The system they have in place makes it so they can take away funds from future sales, but if future sales do not exceed the amount in dispute then amazon can recover the funds that were paid

Not seeing a big benefit in Amazon coming on board this early... could be a dump truck... sell n dump does not help raise btc value...
We need to focus on increasing awareness on purchase value for long term investment.

it`s just a matter of time before bitcoin becomes global. Impossible to resist.
Can`t escape reality.

They will likely eventually sell items that they sell directly for bitcoin. I would doubt that anything sold via 3rd parties on the amazon website will sell for bitcoin, or if they do that the merchant would be able to get paid in bitcoin.

Well Amazon will need to worry about outmoding from other groups developing Bitcoin and stores that may emerge from it's own ecosystem
Bitcoin also has good retailers like overstock that use it now so it's likely something they will seriously consider or they can risk that they may be left a bit behind or give way for something strong to appear.

Overstock has a limited supply of what it can sell by concept. Amazon has long been the biggest online retailer. Amazon would likely wish to accept bitcoin because of it's cost verses other payment methods, not for a competitive advantage.

The sheer volitality would overshadow the cost advantage for a company as big as Amazon.  If Amazon truly accepts bitcoin one day, then we'll know bitcoin has made it.  But I honestly don't think the infrastructure is there yet for bitcoin to be accepted by Amazon.  A company like Coinbase or bitpay works fine for small to medium size companies, but I don't think either of them would cut it for a company as large as Amazon.  

But back to the original topic.  If you really want Amazon to accept bitcoin, here's what I'd do.  Bypass the customer service reps and go straight to the CEO himself and ask him if he'd be willing to consider accepting bitcoins.  He's the one who has the power to make the decision.  Jeff Bezos's email is jeff@amazon.com.

Amazon is a great step for Bitcoin no doubt of it...
Bitcoin is an unstoppable virus which makes mankind easily change their minds, we have seen Russia, and some other countries that banned and unbanned it... Indeed as you said, it is impossible to resist.

China increasingly seemed to soften their stance, Russia now explicitly so.... California clarifying legality and New York getting ready to roll out Bitlicenses.... i think i see where this is going.

If amazon accept BTC, that would be a huge push.
But I believe eventually they will do it.

if newegg can do it, amazon can too  ;D

that's like comparing an ant with an elephant.

The sheer volitality would overshadow the cost advantage for a company as big as Amazon.  If Amazon truly accepts bitcoin one day, then we'll know bitcoin has made it.  But I honestly don't think the infrastructure is there yet for bitcoin to be accepted by Amazon.  A company like Coinbase or bitpay works fine for small to medium size companies, but I don't think either of them would cut it for a company as large as Amazon. 

But back to the original topic.  If you really want Amazon to accept bitcoin, here's what I'd do.  Bypass the customer service reps and go straight to the CEO himself and ask him if he'd be willing to consider accepting bitcoins.  He's the one who has the power to make the decision.  Jeff Bezos's email is jeff@amazon.com.
[/quote]

I agree. Infrastructure is crucial to handling that kind of volume. We are probably at least a couple of years from being ready for something that big. The good news is that it means cheap bit coin will be available for a little while longer.

if Amazon accepted bitcoin, that could potentially be a huge downward pressure on the market. these small guys like DISH and Newegg -- Bitpay won't be pressured to dump on exchanges for the kind of volumes those businesses bring. but Amazon? might be too much bitcoin spent and not enough buyers for Bitpay/Coinbase to exchange them. i mean, they are like the biggest in the world.

First of all, i doubt that is his real amazon email address.

Secondly, there is no reason why amazon couldn't build their own bitcoin processing service to use for themselves. All they would have to do is work with a number of exchanges to automatically sell a certain amount of bitcoin when they receive it from customers. The exchange and amazon could each take out a letter of credit to guarantee eachothers' performance so amazon would not need to transfer the bitcoin right away and amazon could trust the exchange with fiat and bitcoin that it holds on it's behalf.

In case you think I'm making it up, I got that e-mail address from a Business Week article (http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-10/jeff-bezos-and-the-age-of-amazon-excerpt-from-the-everything-store-by-brad-stone).

Chicken and egg. Not enough customers for them to bother changing anything, not enough merchants for most non-bitcoiners to want the option.
They'll come on board once bitcoin is bigger. Better to focus on companies more interested in getting in early.

Yep, it could be a while for this to unfold. Amazon is big, big money. It'd be one thing if their vendors/suppliers accepted bitcoin -- then they could hold it. But being such a huge e-commerce giant, they have huge overheads to pay in fiat. That means selling the bitcoins spent there. I don't know how deep the market is for Bitpay, etc.

No one is going to to buy Bitcoins just to spend them on Amazon. Not a chicken and an egg problem, simply a sign of relatively low adoption.

As I know, newegg has accepted Bitcoin

Yes, that's what he was saying. But I think they are apples and oranges for the reasons mentioned up thread. Newegg is a tiny fish -- Amazon is a giant whale. The biggest. BTC needs to be a lot bigger, I think, before Amazon can get their feet wet.

hey guys, I took your advise and sent Amazon a message on their Facebook page. the message I sent was:


Surprisingly I got a reply! The reply was:


To which I replied:


I didn't expect a reply! Are you guys getting replies too when posting on their Facebook wall?

Edit: I have since gotten this reply as well:

Agreed. Bitcoins are a pain in the ass to get. Why would you pay fees to get bitcoins just to turn around and spend them?
I saved 20% on my last Amazon purchase through PurseIO. That makes it worth it. Then rebought on Coinbase.

They will use bitcoin to spend on amazon because it will reduce overall costs verses using a credit card

I agree with this campaign and will at least keep getting BTC in their heads even if they don't add it right away. They are the ones loosing as well considering even big competitors like newegg are adding it (and even ebay are partially making positive moves unlike their usual behavior). and they are the ones left out of the flock.

I just contacted Amazon, the conversation was decent he (sunil from amazon) replied this:


This was after going through a sales rep in chat.

Just a boilerplate response, IMO. Amazon is way to big to be accepting bitcoin at this point. Not until there is a more solid basis for them hold bitcoins (supply chain/overheads). Bitpay can't handle their volume....

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I've been buying Amazon gift cards and other items at Amazon (tracfone and airtime, etc.) with bitcoin at a 15-25% discount (!) thanks to Purse.io - well, around 13-23% discount once I replenish my BTC with fiat, but it's still a great deal.

You can check out Purse at my referral link (https://purse.io/?_r=XClu2O) - I really do endorse it. What happens is you create a wishlist at Amazon and then post it on Purse, with the percentage discount (up to 33%) that you want (yeah, it's nuts, but it works). I've gotten 3 items now with a 25% discount, but 15% is more normal. You can ask for whatever you want up to 33% off though. My bids have been accepted within a day or two, up to a week worst case. Your funds go into an escrow account once a bidder purchases your order and has it shipped to you. Once it arrives you confirm delivery and the funds are released.

The Purse operators even paid me $1 (in BTC) once when a deal fell through (due to Amazon's anti-fraud detectors going off on the bidder for some reason) and I asked about it, simply as a goodwill gesture.

Sounds like a neat idea, but also one which could end up with you getting a heavy knock on the door, when the police trace laundered drug money to people buying you gifts on Amazon and come to ask you what you know about it!

About to post the same message.

MoneyPak and Amazon Gift card are heavily used to laundry money. People buying them regularly will eventually have their door knocked by authority.

i spend quite a bit on amazon with bitcoins, so this interests me. but ive always bee skeptical of discount marketplaces like this. are there buyer protections for those selling bitcoin/buying amazon purchases?

Absolutely, this is boilerplate, but the more people request it, the more seriously it has to be taken.  It's like writing a letter to your government representative in the USA.  Obviously your congressman won't read your letter.  But if 10K people write a letter with the same opinion, the congressman's staff is going to tell him this is a big deal.

This is true to some extent. But the reality is that Amazon may be too high volume for Bitpay and the like to handle. I don't think Amazon will jump on for quite some time.

this might be the way to use our btc right now..
but its better to all of us to use btc directly and letting new people the opportunity to discover it!

I have the same concerns. I've been using Gyft for my Amazon purchases, but I may switch to something like this if it looks promising.

How reputable is purse.io? I love the looks of those discounts, but something tells me it might be too good to be true. I've been buying through Gyft at spot.

Purse is similar to paypal in that it is p2p buying. You buy something via purse.io for bitcoin, the seller pays for the product in fiat and receives bitcoin.

Yes, but what are the buyer/seller protection policies? What if a gift card turns out to be fraudulently obtained? What happens then?

I have been interested in this as well. I would like to see some feedback on both Gyft and Purse.io, if you guys have any.

I haven't had any problems of that sort, and could straightforwardly answer any questions that came up. Because basically there would be very little I could tell the authorities about the person who bought my BTC, and there would be nothing done wrong on my part.

Purse acts as an escrow in essence. If you are selling your BTC,  your BTC goes into escrow once a buyer accepts your bid and orders your wishlist. But it is not released to them until you click the Delivery Confirmation button. There is also a Dispute button for bringing up issues if something goes wrong, to bring Purse management in to a contested order. I've not used it yet (just normal contact channels).

That's kind of what I thought so I started small, and have been ramping up as things have gone well. I learned about Purse from an article on Coindesk, FWIW. The owners seem young but earnest; as I mentioned they gave me a token amount ($1) as a goodwill gesture when I asked about an order being accepted and then being canceled (by Amazon, no fault of Purse itself).

I don't know why people would pay 15-25% premiums for bitcoin, but I guess if they don't have bank accounts or other means to transfer fiat to BTC, this is an easy way for them to do it.

Not sure what you mean by "fraudulently obtained." In my case I'm ordering Amazon gift cards via my wishlist; the bidder who accepts my bid pays for them by credit card, but the gift card is shipped direct from Amazon to my home address. So I'm getting my items direct from Amazon (or vendors under the Amazon umbrella in the case of my tracfone orders). The Purse FAQ covers what to do if items are damaged, etc. when received, as do Amazon's return policies (you can return items for Amazon gift cards, worst case, so that the payment is not refunded to the bidder on your order.)

I haven't used Gyft but have heard nothing bad about them. If I hadn't found Purse I'd be using them myself by now. I wonder how long Purse will be able to command substantial discounts, but so far so good with it.

With purse.io you don't get a gift card, you receive actual products and do not release escrow until you actually receive the items. Everything is tracked with Amazon as far as order numbers and tracking numbers.

WOW,it's a great news if the BTC accpeted by Amazon. :-* :-*

I'll share another experience with Purse: One of my transactions was supposedly filled ~2 weeks ago for a $100 gift card; last week the bidder claimed it had been delivered to me on the transaction page. (Each transaction has a section in which brief messages can be passed back and forth between the BTC seller, the bidder, and Purse.)

I hadn't gotten the delivery and asked for tracking info, etc., but did not get a response. This morning was the 1 week mark since the bidder claimed it was delivered, so I was planning to open a dispute with Purse to try to resolve it (since my funds are tied up in escrow indefinitely otherwise), but I found Purse had proactively created a dispute last night, reporting that Amazon had canceled the order. I'm still awaiting final resolution on this bid but I appreciate Purse being on the ball and hope to be able to get the transaction canceled out so I can relist again shortly. Having a bidder claim to have paid for an item and not getting it on my end is obviously a worst case scenario, but even in this case it appears to be getting handled well.

It just struck me that another very good use of this service (and perhaps a reason for orders being cancelled by Amazon when it doesn't work) is for people trying to drain money from stolen credit cards or hacked Amazon accounts.
Normally the problem with buying online with a stolen card is that you have to actually receive the goods, which means being tied to an address. Here you can send the goods to someone else's address, and get (reasonably) untraceable bitcoin in return.
Purse risk becoming (not necessarily through any fault of their own) a high tech online fence. And Amazon may get fed up of being drawn in to that.

Hadn't thought of that, but that's a fair point. I'll bring it up with Purse to see if there is a way to safeguard against that, perhaps by enabling Amazon to interact with the escrow process or something.

They dont even take paypal.

Amazon will be the last online retailer to accept bitcoin and only after many lobbying attempts to have it outlawed

Just a minor update on Purse.io - after a couple days without any notification they canceled the contested order I outlined above, freeing up my escrowed funds. So that worked out well for me. My only quibble would be that their system lacks a good "transaction history" page that includes canceled transactions or the ability to view messages on completed orders. Once an order is complete the page for it vanishes and all you have is a record of the BTC transacted on such and such date. Not a big deal, presumably they will flesh out the system as they have time.

In other news I got another pair of orders accepted at 20% and 25% discounts. :)

I really don't see any way around this issue as it can take a long time for credit cards to be reported stolen and disputes opened. The bitcoin sellers could potentially be criminally investigated if stolen credit cards are used to have items shipped to them.

Investigated yes, but I doubt if anything could come of it once the investigators saw and understood the escrow system in use. Unless a bidder openly made comments confessing to a theft in the messaging system for a bid, I don't see how we could possibly be held accountable. And if such a comment were made, I'd see what I could do to ferret them out and report them to appropriate law enforcement.

Whatever makes them money is what they will use
Bitcoin and amazon are not mortal foes perhaps ebay and paypal are though

Judges and juries are the only ones who have the authority to make legal conclusions. If the jury thinks that the facts show that the buyer knew the items were purchased with stolen credit cards then it would find him guilty.

Before it gets to that point a prosecutor has to judge whether it is even worth the bother, and I wouldn't think it would progress past that point. Unless you think everyone who gets a good deal selling something on Ebay should be taken to court just in case of wrongdoing, for example.

I make a wishlist on Amazon. I share it on Purse, with a discount I'm seeking from people who want to buy BTC with a credit card. An anonymous bidder accepts my offer. When the item(s) arrive I Confirm Delivery on Purse and the BTC transfers. How could a judge or jury or prosecutor think from that sequence of events that the BTC holder "knowingly" was a party to criminal activity? Might as well just arrest anyone with cash in their pockets, all bankers, etc., because their cash might once have been involved in a crime.

As I already stated, I will do my best to report any confession of illegal activity by a bidder for BTC (unlikely as that may be). I've also brought up this whole issue with Purse (including a link to this thread); I'll share what response I get if any.

Spoke with a representative from Amazon ~1.5 weeks ago about this very thing.  She indicated that she herself had received at least half a dozen requests for bitcoin payment options just within the last week.  Given enough pressure and requests I suspect Amazon should be completely on board by the middle of next year at the latest.  (*taking off tin-foil hat*)

It'll definitely be interesting to see how this plays out.  This may also be a case of be careful what you wish for, as this might not be as good as we think for bitcoin, if it comes before the bitcoin infrastructure is ready for it.

I did get a response from Purse, I think from one of the founders actually. It reads (excerpted):

...There are many reasons we chose to integrate with Amazon, and one of them is the fact that they have a state-of-the-art fraud detection system and a strong anti-chargeback process.

Sometimes, Amazon cancels even legitimate orders because it looks suspicious to them (i.e. $1,000 gift card order purchased from Brazil to a Spender in Alabama). People who Buy BTC through our site and try to chargeback Amazon will find their attempts fruitless. Amazon will provide evidence that they shipped and delivered the product and will require a return of the items before they issue a refund to the Buyer. They have great relationships issuing and merchant banks, and they do not outsource payments.

On Purse's side, our system ensures that Spenders aren't exposed to fraud. Spenders' BTC aren't at risk because they have to confirm delivery of the item. We are developing capabilities that detect changes in Amazon orders so that we minimize the wait time for Spenders.

What if the prosecutor were to think that you were the anonymous bidder who is simply trying to hide your tracks by used purse to use a stolen credit card?

The founder of Overstock.com is such a dope dude! He is a total hippy! I love him! I love to hang out with him for a day and just learn! FK amazon!

Good question... I assume they'd be looking for some kind of evidence to back that up. They'd have to have _something_ beyond a mere suspicion to make it worthy of going to trial. And in my case there'd simply be nothing. No evidence in computer records (on my own or the ISP, etc.) nothing in my personal life, real life contacts/associates, relation to any credit card fraud victims, I'd almost certainly have alibis for the time/place of any crimes, etc. And I'd be fully cooperative since I'd have nothing to hide. So again, I couldn't see this going anywhere near a trial.

I think you would still be guilty of receiving stolen property if you bought goods with bitcoin for a discount when the goods were purchased with a stolen credit card. It would be kind of like you buying a stolen TV out of some guy's truck, brand new for 50% off what it would cost you in a store. The semantics are different but the same principles would apply.

On a completely different note^

What's the status on amazon accepting bitcoin?

I've asked before. I've only gotten a boilerplate response. I think Amazon is way too big to touch bitcoin for now. Not until there is a much bigger market cap and market liquidity against USD.

Yeah, in a case like that where it could be documented that the funds used in the fiat purchase were stolen I'd be agreeable to making things right and returning/refunding the proceeds/items. I suspect if someone wanted to fight it, the novelty and complexity of the case would bog it down and they'd probably win on some technicality or other.

What is the latest situation for Amazon?

Unless I missed something, nothing but boilerplate responses. I have to think that Amazon is simply too big to risk holding BTC (can't pay suppliers and vendors in it), and Bitpay can't do that kind of volume!

If this were the case then you would essentially be scammed out of your bitcoin and would, at the vest least have a scary encounter with the police/law enforcement.

I am pretty sure that as long as it can be documented that the goods were stolen then, even if you buy them legitimately, they are still considered stolen and must be returned to the rightful owner. Generally there must be some kind of serial number or tracking number to document the fact that they were stolen. 

Bitcoin is still too small to be considered by Amazon but things may change next year,
more and more companies are adopting it and Amazon will follow sooner or later.

I think if Amazon gets enough fuss, (People keep saying I am buying at Overstock.com until you accept Bitcoin) they will have to cave. 

It would take a lot of people to make this happen but every little message to them will help in the long run.

Emailed them that I now use Overstock (because of Bitcoin), but would like to also use Amazon.

bump

Yes once Bitcoin has enough people using it, businesses will start allowing Bitcoin payments

Yep, I meant they took bitcoins from USA customers only. 

That's a good  news. Sooner or later if amazon accepting bitcoin that' a great step and more and more companies will follow them..

Any news on them accepting any type of cryptocurrency?

I never bought anything from Amazon, but in future i think i will order some stuff out of curiosity. I'd love to see them accepting BTC, since i don't want to use credit cards and stuff if it is not really neccessary.

Very unlikely in the short term. They said it was not a matter of importance to them earlier this year.

With increasing customer demand everyday they will soon start accepting bitcoin payments and It would be awesome to pay AWS bill with bitcoin.

It seems that this is all we are lacking at the moment, customer demand. If more of us ask for this to be implemented we may get it sooner rather than later. Petitions and posting anywhere that is possible including Facebook pages, customer support emails and even forums if they have forums is plenty of ways to get their attention and show there is enough people out there want to see them accept it. I wonder how many other companies are thinking the same way as Amazon though and all it will take it enough interest and demand.

Agreed

Probably when a big company like Amazon or Facebook will adopt bitcoin there will be a huge jump in price and adoption.

I think there is plenty of demand for bitcoin on amazon, and I think that amazon knows it. I think the issue is that Amazon is not sure about the regulatory environment when accepting bitcoin. Since there is essentially no regulations regarding merchants accepting bitcoin they are probably afraid that regulators could regulate bitcoin as a way to push up their costs of doing business.   

In the context of total Amazon transactions, the demand for purchases via bitcoin is probably not too significant.

Hope they'll still do it though. Their margins are so thin, any cost savings is good.

I would love to see amazon starting to accept BTC...I will be their good customer :)

Lots of BTC to spend on shopping.

Amazon already has something called "Amazon Coins" in addition to gift cards. Basically they are like "credits" for Kindle Fire apps and games, etc. and by buying them, you can get those products at a discount. I haven't looked into it too much. Nothing to do with crypto, though.

Same here i would like to see not just amazon but e-bay ass well to accept BTC

I have submitted requests to not only Amazon, but almost every large retailer/company that I can think of or run across. I sometimes get a "we are looking into it" or an automated response. The more popular it gets, the more chance that companies like Amazon will take bitcoin. To pay for a lot of services on the internet, bitcoin would be so much easier. In fact, instead of paying monthly for my Netflix, I would pay yearly if they took bitcoin, would probably do that with all my subscriptions. There is no reason not to take bitcoin when they will get fiat if they use bitpay or coinbase for the transaction. It wouldn't cost them too much to implement it either.. it will just take time, it will eventually happen.

You need to remember that when you send an email to a company requesting that they accept bitcoin (or to make any kind of change) it does not take very much effort/time on your part. It is also important that it takes even less time for them to ignore.

A few pages back I posted on the virtues of using Purse.io to buy things on Amazon using BTC. I now want to share a warning about using Purse for Amazon gift cards and maybe other purchases as well - see this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=307922.msg8647519#msg8647519

...feeling like I just took a lot more shrapnel in the cryptocurrency war w. scammers. And none of this would be happening if Amazon would just accept BTC directly.

ebliever

You are the man!!    PTL

Your suggestion seems to have been shelved by Amazon

I agree with your concept, but I disagree with your proposal as to how to show demand. I think instead of telling them that we want them to accept bitcoin via email and phone calls, the bitcoin community should vote with their money by patronizing stores/merchants that accept bitcoin. These merchants will report the large number of sales that bitcoin brings in and others will follow. 

Nice to know, thanks.

Would Coinbase or Bitpay be able to scale to this level anytime soon?... seems like a massive undertaking for them.

I tend to think the Amazon agent has no idea what Bitcoin is.....at least that's how it comes off to me.

Considering that was over 3 months ago, it was certainly faked or agent has no clue.  Sadly...

My open letter to Amazon on the Purse.io/gift card dispute:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=769529.0

I asked them about btc and ignored the shit out of me  ::)

I am pretty sure Amazon will accept BTC since it got potential.

That said whenever they do get around to accepting Bitcoin payments
This thread might long be forgotten
Slow but steady lol.

I sure hope so that i can buy something from them.

It's a great news. If Amazon will start accepting BTC what would be great. I will ask Amazon for BTC payments. I think they will start accepting very soon.

Me too hope that Amazon accepts BTC. Can we make a request on their page on Twitter and Facebook? Mass-request may help. If anybody is making please let us know and also include best payment processors or give links to guide on making a payment processor themselves. :)

  ~~MZ~~

Most vendors fear Bitcoin integration because they simply don't understand it. Most of their "arguments" were already discussed in the FAQ of Bitcoin.org

If PayPal really is successful in integrating Bitcoin, Amazon may be tempted a lot more to integrate it natively! An interesting turn of events today... I wonder if we see Amazon integrating it. It would be one of the best things to happen to Bitcoin!

Paypal is the first, amazon will follow it and other big companies will come as well.

I don't see Amazon integrating it because most Bitcoin users prefer purchasing Gift Cards from their BTC, then spending those gift cards on Amazon instead.

One such service is "Giftcard BTC"

Amazon Payments is a direct competitor of Bitcoin. They'll never do it as long as we're the competition. That's like asking Microsoft to sell Apple products.

https://payments.amazon.com/home

That's also like expecting Paypal to accept Bitcoin

https://twitter.com/PayPal/status/509053601541787648

EBay's PayPal Unit to Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments? What the hell? Wow, thanks for sharing

Paypal is a little different in that they are trying to branch out to other payment systems. You can even use Paypal to pay in brick n mortar stores now.